


To Become Something Else

by Idgahufflefuck



Series: Girl Genius Event Week 2018 [3]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, musings on the jagerdraught, tagged for violence for some description of jager transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 23:18:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16274426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idgahufflefuck/pseuds/Idgahufflefuck
Summary: Katka muses on the jagerbrau & her own transformation.





	To Become Something Else

Jagerdraught. Jagerbrau. The Heterodyne's secret monster sauce. People spoke in whispers, calling it a dozen different names, and and rumors ran abound.

It was the most painful thing imaginable-- a fate worse than death.

Heterodyne blood was a key ingredient.

There was no actual draught; in reality it was a viral injection given to those deemed worthy.

Every once and a while someone would ask a direct question about the process. If the questions weren't too detailed, or the asker too pushy, chances are they'd get laughed out of the tavern with a juicy new rumor to spread. Mechanicsburg had always been proud of their reputation. Even more rarely, someone would work up the courage to ask a jager what it had been like for them.

Katka had spent many years giving what answers she could to new potentials. Since becoming jagerkin and beginning her work with Mama and the family to bring new brothers and sisters into the world she had learned a lot of things that she couldn't tell anyone. And her own experiences were hazy at best, leaving very little to tell the anxious and determined kids that came to her.

Some of it was too obvious to bother with-- the process hurt. Her skin had been raw for weeks and broke easily, which made adjusting to her new claws and quills difficult. And, of course, there was the mortality rate to consider. (Although, if someone was really taking that to heart as an obstacle they probably shouldn't be considering the Brau in the first place.) Anyone could see the pyres or hear the raucous celebrations held for the fallen every year. If you had the bravery and loyalty required to take the Brau you were jagerkin, whether you took one breath after the transformation set in or a century's worth.

For every moment of remembered pain Katka had another of her brothers: solidly, steadily there through the whole ordeal. There was a firm pair of hands that held her down as her muscles screamed and seized. A voice telling her to /breathe/ when she was sure she was drowning in her own blood. The warm hands with the cool cloth wiping away her hair as it fell away in chunks. She never found out who the hands or the voices belonged to, but it never mattered. She knew she would do the same for any and all of them given the chance. (Likewise, she looked forward to the after parties where she could spin the drunken new jagers around and challenge them to a race, testing the limits of their strange new bodies.)

The answers she took the most joy in where the frustratingly odd ones.

"Iz itchy."

"It sounded like trees in a vindstorm. Mebbe dot vas my bones?"

"De last ting Hy remember vas da taste ov licorice."

Because, really, how do you explain an experience like that even if details weren't forbidden? There was only one thing to be said that was worth anything and it was something she'd known mind, body and soul from the moment she'd opened her eyes- dizzy and overwhelmed by her improved senses- to see Master Caligula standing over her, hand outstretched, telling her she'd done very well.

Taking the Jagerdraught was the best thing she'd ever done.

**Author's Note:**

> For GG Event Week prompt "Jagerdraught"!
> 
> Idk if/how much else I'll actually get around to writing about/with Katka but I have a few mini scenes that might eventually be something.


End file.
